Fieldtrip Report:
Glendon Pyrite,
Standard Mineral Company,
April 9th, 2005,
by Lee Fleming
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I thought I would give you a short report on our field trip to the Glendon Mine near Sanford. Saturday morning started early for me (at about 5:30 AM) when I packed the last of my gear into the truck and left the house. As I pulled out of the driveway, I noticed that it was raining enough to turn on my wipers. For the remainder of the 1 1/2 hour trip, it drizzled on and off. Of course, knowing Glendon as I do, I was not looking forward to the wet mud we were going to have to work in all morning, but the thought of finding pyrite and fluorite somehow made me forget the muddy conditions.
Upon arrival at the site, I was surprised to find that there were only 10 or 12 trucks at the mine entrance. Also, after only being at the site for about 15 minutes, the mine personnel drove up with the release forms. Once the forms were signed, we were allowed to enter the mine. I was armed with my metal detector, potato rake, and collecting bucket. Immediately upon getting to the collecting area where we were last fall, my detector began to go off and I found several nice cubes of pyrite.
It soon became apparent that the larger pyrite cubes were not loose in the material as they were last year, but they were still embedded in the base rock in veins. Those with digging tools started finding the very large pyrite cubes. This picture of Denny shows how digging was accomplished and the results of a little effort.
Denny with a pyrite brick!
This next picture shows one of these large pyrite cubes in the native material.
M.A.G.M.A. was represented by at least 5 members. I'm sure there were others there; but at one time, I was stuck in the Glendon white mud for almost 30 minutes and I did not have time nor the energy to search out other members. Brian, Shirley, Thomas, Denny, and I were the MAGMA members.
Brian, armed and ready!
Shirley and Denny.
